I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I do not advocate for working out on an empty stomach. If you do not have glucose in your bloodstream you will not have energy and you’ll end up burning muscle instead of fat. The Army doesn’t see it this way. However, I’ve decided if I’m going to make the most of my civilian time before going into the Army then I’m going to eat before I workout. When I’m at basic training and OCS I’ll do it their way. After the training period is over I will again be free to eat before working out.

I wanted to share my meal plan and some lifestyle changes for getting in shape for basic and OCS. I am a perpetual list-maker and I love writing to sort things out. Therefore, it came simply to me how to figure out my nutritional routine: I wrote it out until I got it right. That being said, there is still trial and error that must occur to work out the problems, but overall I think I’ve planned some wise nutritional changes that work for my schedule and my body. Basically, if I don’t switch things up often I will get bored. So, I’ve created 4 weekly menus of all of my favorite and nutritious foods.

Week A (if I number them I feel like I’m keeping track of the weeks, so I lettered them. I know, weird quirk.): Breakfast: Oatmeal with frozen blueberries and a hardboiled egg. Snack/pre-workout: carrot sticks and hummus. Post workout: 1/2 Clif Bar (NO chocolate varieties; this will set off a sweet tooth that can’t be stopped!), and 1 banana. Dinner: Boiled chicken and stir-fry.

Some regular items on my menu are whole wheat bread and pasta, eggs, vegetables, Clif Bars, and chicken. These are things I normally eat and I wanted to incorporate them into my plan. This menu may seem rather mundane, but the goals of this were to be 1) easy! I’m not a cook and I don’t have time to cook, 2) majority can be prepared in advance, 3) able to support “on-the-go” schedule (portable and okay out of the refrigerator for six hours or so). Above all this nutritional plan needed to support my fitness goals and I hope it is doing just that. I will post updates to follow up on how this turns out. (Also, I’m a student so this has to be affordable. After number-crunching the 4 week plan comes out to $30.50 per week).

The lifestyle goal I commented on earlier is sleep. I have posted before about my erratic sleep schedule and I’m sick of it. I need more consistency in my sleep to help my body fall into a healthy rhythm. Therefore, I am committing myself to waking up at 6am on Mondays and Wednesdays (early class) and 7 am on all other days. I may allow myself to sleep until 8am on Sundays, but I don’t want to throw my body off schedule by sleeping in by more than 2 hours. This goal won’t be difficult when I start up with school again. My school schedule motivates me to get up. However, for the last two weeks of summer break, I’m having trouble finding the motivation to wake up so early for no reason. If there is one motivating factor it is working out in the morning before the heat of the day hits. Then, it gets hot outside and hot inside and I don’t want to move a muscle!